This week our blog comes from Kate Russell, who is playing the evil Malevolent in our Sleeping Beauty. Find her wicked words below:
This week has been a time for all the little ghosties and ghoulies to come out to play, so of course this is my favourite time of year! My name is Kate and I am playing the evil fairy Malevolent in our production of Sleeping Beauty in January. I am very lucky to have been in 7 previous pantomimes with SMP, but I have to say this is looking to be the best one yet. I’ve played a few princesses and fairies, but it’s so much fun being bad!
Thanks to the writing talent of Warren McWilliams, and the direction of Christopher O’Shea, as the evil villain of Sleeping Beauty, I get to push people around, slap them round the head and laugh evilly… a lot! So this is great fun for me when we rehearse, although maybe not for Sasha and Luke who play my minions Sniffles and Boggers, as I think they always leave more than a little bit bruised.
Due to my being the baddie, there are several full cast numbers which I am not in. Normally this would feel a bit alien, and I would be a disappointed to not be in a number, but the amazing part is that I get to watch the cast perform them instead. The talent of the cast is truely exceptional, and the arrangements by our Musical Director Mike Benyon, and routines by our Choreographer Fay Kemal, are second to none.
This show will be rather special for me, as I have the great honour of co-writing one of my numbers with our MD Mike. He has written several songs for our shows before, but this will be my first time. I’m very excited, and just hope I can help to create something worthy of the show. We’ll be meeting up soon to make some magic, so you’ll have to see the show to hear how it turns out. J
As it has been Halloween this week, all of our cast members have been connecting with their dark sides, and came dressed in some amazing costumes for our Halloween party. We had some stunning decorations, food, and music, and each time a song from one of our previous shows came on, we were all up dancing the routine, loving every second of it. Although I loved being dressed up, flying around on a broom, the best thing about the party was that it was with all my fiends, I mean friends, from SMP. They say you can choose your friends but not your family, but in this case, we’ve become both, and I wouldn’t change them for the world (no matter what I say when in character).
So here is where I say goodbye. Or, in the words of Malevolent, ‘Oh be quiet you worthless fools! I’m leaving!’ *Insert evil laugh here*.
